Justice Heroes Elite

CHP 55: Observing and Planning

The city of Gotham along with the rest of the world is in great panic, afraid of what will happen next. For some though, it is a good thing which should be taken full advantage of. Harley Quinn sits at a table counting through the money for a third time, waiting for Poison Ivy and a few of the henchmen to return. She loves the fact the police will have their hands full with so many other problems that they won't have to key in on their group; not to mention more importantly Batman, or any of those masked heroes for that matter.

"How's it going Harley? You look hard at work; perhaps you should take a break and have something to eat." Someone says entering from a side door.

Setting the stack of one hundred dollar bills off to the side, she looks up to see Victor Creed A.K.A Sabretooth. Her group isn't fully working alongside his; but both parties have shared certain equipment and information in the past few days. Neither side finds it necessary to form an alliance and or merger. Victor has been working alongside some guy who goes by the name of Magneto; someone Harley hasn't been formally introduced to.

"What do you have there?" She asks refereeing to the food.

Reaching into the bag he pulls out something which is wrapped in foil sliding it across the table in front of her.

"It's one of Wendy's special custom burgers, I'm sure you will like it. I've got an extra thing of fries in here if you'd like some."

Showing her disapproval she pushes it away, disclosing that she isn't one to eat fast-food and will pick up something else later for herself. Taking a step forward with a shrug of his shoulders; Sabretooth picks up the burger unwrapping and taking a huge bite. Chewing away he looks directly at Harley who shows a face of disgust. Seeing this makes him smile, before turning in the other direction looking out of a window up at the moon. The next thing they know, the door again opens with Poison Ivy, Circe and most of their group entering.

"Did Wilson Fisk happen to call while we were out?" Behind Circe the group of men carry with them, heavy boxes, "We've got the weapons he requested."

Sitting back Harley nods her head informing that they haven't received any calls in the last hour. Their reason for joining with the Kingpin is because of his resources and unlimited supply of materials and men, to help put together their own little group. You could say this team up of theirs is only temporary, until they've fully established themselves. Circe turns back around directing the men to where exactly she wants them to take the weapons.

"How much longer until your magneto friend arrives? If he wants to discuss an offer with us, he'd better hurry and get over here ASAP. We've got a lot to do before this night is over, and would prefer not to have any setbacks." Poison Ivy says, having a seat over the table top crossing one leg over the other.

Taking another bite, Sabretooth looks down marveling the view of Ivy's legs grinning while he continues to chew. Catching the expression on his face she looks in the other direction frowning; but has her heart jump a bit observing the bat signal in the sky.

"It's really quiet redundant don't you think…what is the point of them raising the signal. Batman is gone, just like the rest of them." Pamela says hopping off the table.

Walking past and bumping into Victor, she walks up in front of the window rubbing a finger over the glasses surface. None of Gotham's criminals were fond of the caped crusader, but she and meta's like herself may find out sooner rather than later they miss the competition. Nothing should ever be too easy, having obstacles in the way gives everything true meaning.

"Don't worry about it red; the police are probably using it as a way to try and scare away people like us. But anyone who's been watching the news knows the truth." Harley implies trying to soothe her friend.

Moving away from where she stands Ivy chuckles, having no fear of the bat or the possibility of his left behind partners showing up. Robin or Nightwing don't frighten her one bit, besides they're undoubtedly busy elsewhere with the increase in crime. One thing that comes back to mind is the encounter she had with the three of them; that being Nightwing, Wonder Woman and the dark knight. How they were able to intercept and interrupt their meeting that night is still a mystery to her. Finishing the burger, Victor tosses the foil into the trash walking up next to Ivy.

"You look incredibly tense, I'd try and relax if I were you," Sabretooth runs a finger over the mid section of her left leg, "Wanna tell me what's on your mind?"

First and foremost she grabs hold of his wrist pulling his hand away from her leg, full and ready to slap him across the face but chooses not to do so.

"Don't ever do that AGAIN!" She says as nicely as she can pinching at his arm.

Pulling his arm away from her he readjusts the collar with on his jacket letting Ivy know it won't happen again. In the next moments the phone next to Harley starts ringing; her being the one to pickup. On the other line is a spokes person for the Kingpin.

"I think you od'a take this call Circe, it's one of the representatives for the Kingpin." Harley tells.

Relieved to finally here from them, Circe takes the phone from Harley conferring on the details of the weaponry they've collected. As ordered by Circe some of the men begin relocating some of the boxes in the storage area. If someone were to walk in through any of the entrances, they wouldn't spot the supplies.

"Say plant lady, are you at all hungry. I've got a choice of Super sized bacon and cheese burger with fries or a thing of salad. You strike me as a vegetarian for some reason." Sabretooth asks.

The mention of her being a vegetarian makes her sick to the stomach tightening her fists. She would never devour her babies or harm them in any kind of way! Marching toward him with a huge glare, she's grabbed from behind by Harley who stops her from going any further.

"Wait what happened…did I say something wrong?" He asks.

"No you're good, let's just say sometimes red takes things the wrong way." Harley says with half a smile hoping Ivy will contain herself.

Powering out of Harley's grasp she walks past Sabretooth entering into one of the other rooms needing some time to cool off. Pulling the keys from out of her pocket Selina Kyle enters into her apartment building setting her shopping bags onto the couch, making sure to close the door behind her. Almost immediately one of her cats leaps up onto her shoulder wanting attention.

"Looks like someone is hungry, just give me a second."

The brown furred cat meows jumping off her shoulder and unto the couch wagging its tail. Patting the kitten over the head, Selina enters into the kitchen pouring a glass of milk into one of the bowls and food in the other. Soon as she's finished three of them surround the area, bringing a smile to her face. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she hadn't really realized that her hair had grown an inch past shoulder length.

"Guess it's time to go party."

Stepping out of the kitchen she removes her sweater resting it on the hanger. Stripping down to just her panties and bra she slips into her cat suit placing the goggles over her eyes last wrapping the whip around her waist.

"Mommy is going out, but I'll be back soon." She calls out to the kittens.

Using the front door has never been her style when it comes to patrol. As she has done countless times before, she exits out of the window landing on top of a neighboring roof. Sprinting across the way, she feels an extra boost of energy flipping off one building onto another speculating on what she should do first. Whatever she decides on doing, she'll have to be extra cautious; the police will be on guard more so than usual. Looking out in the distance, something catches her attention! It glided by so quickly, having wings or perhaps a cape! Taking off after the figure she hopes it is indeed the dark knight. With all his connections, he's bound to know more than what has been being broadcasted on T.V.

"I hate being left in the dark; if anyone has an explanation for any of this…it's him."

Him being a part of the Justice League and working alongside these other heroes worldwide, alone should be enough to say he has at least some sort of indication of the events which have taken place as of recent.

"You aren't getting away from me that easily."

Putting forth her best effort to keep pace with him, she pulls out her whip, throwing it upward and connecting with the neck of a statue swinging around and soaring onto another building landing on her feet, still having the caped individual in sight being a good deal ahead of her.

Avengers Mansion

Getting out of bed, Liu Kang pours himself a cup of iced water setting it off to the side of his bed slipping back underneath the sheets getting comfortable. He finds it to be weird that Princess Kitana is asleep in the room across from him, but in a good way. Fluffing up the pillow behind his head, he thinks about his feelings for her concluding that should not be acted upon due to her status.

"Better get some shut eye, there's going to be a lot of work to do."

Inside her room, Sonya has just gotten out of the shower, with one towel wrapped around her body and the other in her hair turning on the T.V. The newscaster talks about several different things involving the economy and rise in crime. In the last day alone there has been a 22% increase in robberies, and will only get worse with time.

"Surely there is something else on more entertaining."

She flips through a few channels stopping when coming across sports not familiar with any of the shows. Fully drying off she gets into one of the T-shirts she brought along with her taking a seat on the right side of the bed. It still hasn't entirely sunk in that she's in a new world surrounded by people and things that are foreign to her.

"In football news, the Detroit Lions defeated the Cardinals 27 to 13 and the Bengals finished off the Seahawks in a last minute thriller 24 to 17."

She again changes the channel electing to stick with the evening news. This place is going to take some getting used to in more ways than one. Down in the training room Subzero lifts weights while in the middle section of the room Scorpion goes through the form of his latest kata he's been studying for the past few months. Maintaining their positions, Black Widow alongside everyone in the observatory room continues to wait patiently for them to put on display their true potential.

"So if this is all we're going to see, I'd like to take a quick break; I'll be back as soon as I can." The security person says walking toward the door.

He is grabbed from behind by one of the directors of shield being asked to take a seat. Not arguing he does as he's told looking through the class window down unto the two fighters dressed like ninjas. Having enough of sitting around and waiting, the director turns to Black Widow asking for her to clarify the names of the two; which she does straight away

"Hello Scorpion and Subzero, I hope the two of you have found our training facility to be of use. I'm not sure if either of you are much for competition, but how would taking part in our very own trials session sound?"

The two look around trying to figure out where the voice came from, quickly finding it comes from an intercom. So far neither of them has been able to fully get warmed up going through that stage. The Link Kuei member takes a look over at the ninja spectre that does the same. Looking away from Scorpion, Subzero faces the opposite direction.

"Sure…we'll try your little activity." Subzero says speaking for them both.

Scorpion notices the two guards who had been standing by the door now exit, which means this trial, could be something more than he was expecting. Truth be told he wouldn't want it to be any other way, he's always opened to a challenge. The lights within the room dim down, with the floor underneath them rotating, twirling in different directions. This action doesn't faze either MK fighter, keeping their concentration on the surroundings and what they could be in for.

"Alrighty than…this is difficulty level three; I'd put you through the first couple but if you aren't able to compete at this level, you shouldn't be here."

Subzero doesn't think too much into it, but Scorpion collects that what he meant is if they can't compete at this level than they're unworthy/dead weight to the protectors of this earth. Scorpion isn't much on trying to prove people wrong, but this should be fun and hopefully a good test for them both. Subzero cracks his knuckles, while at the same time the ground beneath them comes to a complete stop. Gazing forward they focus on a certain area in the room where two androids rise from the ground.

"They think we're un reliable…stay back grand master, I'll take them on alone." Scorpion says.

Grinning beneath his mask, Subzero takes a few steps back crossing his arms ready to watch. Seeing that he has in fact backed off, Scorpion gives his full undivided attention to the silver and gold cyborgs.

"Hhhmm it would appear he's going to try at it alone should be interesting." Widow utters.

In moments the two robots are activated with their eyes lighting up a color of purple, focusing in on Scorpion who gets into a fighting stance. In scanning Scorpion fully, the results are sent up to the observatory room coming back as unidentified on all accounts, and his strength level being a pinch over peak human.

"Who exactly did this guy say he was?" One of them asks.

There is no answer given to him, due to everyone having their focus on what's happening down below them. The golden android takes a moment to scan Subzero, who also sends up some results off the charts which label him as having Meta ability. In a hurry the two robots dash forward, being knocked down by Scorpion who performs a spinning air drop kick. Pulling out one sword from his sheath, the ninja spectre slices them both up in no time wanting to laugh. What joke of a trial is this? Maybe this was designed for small children.

"Good work Scorpion, that was so impressive we'll knock it up to level six." The shield director speaks through the intercom.

It is now Subzero who comes up from behind placing a hand over the right shoulder of Scorpion, notifying that he'll take on this next session alone. Having no problem with that, Scorpion takes a few steps back placing the sword back in its rightful place. The shattered robotic parts are removed, with the ground beneath them twirling and consuming them.

"Gotta give it to these guys; this is some pretty high end stuff." Subzero says to himself.

In the next seconds following, three robots are brought into sight from the ground below, each standing over 8 ft tall. Unlike in the previous session, they attack immediately firing off several rounds at Subz who flips out of the way dodging the bullets. Although he agreed to stay back; Scorpion too moves out of the way of the gunfire. Each robot has an installed firearm on its right arm, and a missile launcher on the other! At the same time the three fires off missiles at the Grand Master who freezes the projectiles solid, watching them fall to the ground.

"What is this guy some type of MUTANT?"

"That's certainly a possibility, but I wouldn't label him such just yet. These people aren't from our globe; this could be normal back in their home world." Natasha says.

The robots initiate firing off several more rounds at Subzero who this time quickly creates a sword made of pure ice cutting at and blocking the bullets. He then goes on to create a shield made of ice, putting it in front of him as he moves in closer. Leaping over fifteen feet into the air he lands on top of the closes of them stabbing his sword through its head; sliding off and slicing a leg off the one next to it. Having no real balance it falls to the ground firing off uncontrollably. Coming up with an idea he freezes the area of their weapons, and as one of them tries to fire off another missile it blows off its own arm; the missiles unable to travel being frozen in place!

"This Subzero ninja has good tactics, very remarkable." A shield member says while at the same time taking notes.

Moving around some, Subzero buys himself extra time creating an ice blast which freezes them all solid. After doing so he comes up in front of them shattering each of them with one punch each, and as a result there are a few claps in the observatory room. Precisely as Scorpion the Lin Kuei's best is commended for his completion of the session.

"You both have been impressive in your first showings, but I will assure you this next stage won't be so easy. If you work as a team, you may have a chance of surpassing it with a victory. Launch session twelve."

"Don't you think that is a bit high?" Natasha asks.

"Trust my beautiful, this is the best way. If we really won't to know how valuable these people are, we're going to need to push them to their limits."

Completely agreeing she has no complaints sitting back watching and waiting to see what the two of them will do next. Out in the city that never sleeps, it would appear to be a normal night; except that a yearlong project is just a day away from being complete. Entering through an automatic door Dr. Doom walks up to the right side of Electro wanting to be updated on the status of the android's built in memory capacity. Putting out a hand, Max tells him to hold on typing away. The automatic door again opens, this time it being Otto Octavius(Doctor Octopus) who enters.

"How are the final provisions going?" Doc Ock asks.

Having the same result as with Doom, Electro doesn't answer keyed in on the job at hand. Not liking that he ignores them both, Dr. Doom slams his fist on the table top which as an outcome gets the attention of Electro.

"Gee could the two of you try and be a little more unwearied, I just need to incorporate all of Iron Fists and Juggernauts battle data into this thing, and then we can move on to the final stages. With the recent events, this android might not be as necessary as previously thought."

This specific development was planned and started over a year ago to try and take down their most hated enemies; having the data of all the X-Men, Avengers and other lethal fighters throughout the globe. All within this faction aren't familiar with the Justice League or any of the heroes who came from that world, but were able to collect data from Black Canary, Superman and Wonder Woman. Now with the latest proceedings of them being wiped out, this whole effort spent on this project almost feels as though it was for nothing. The way things are now, they could probably be successful without the machine.

"I must say I will miss my run inns with Reed and the fantastic four, but it is a new era; that being our time. Uctogram can still be of use to us." Doom says referring to the android.

Back in Gotham Catwoman never lost track of the shadow figure following him/or her to a business building. She isn't for sure, but she has a good feeling it's everyone's favorite overgrown pointy eared flying crime fighter. Watching them enter through a window, she waits a few moments before going in herself. To her surprise there is no one there, except for a few safes located off to the side, which no doubt require a combination key to unlock.

"My eyes must be playing tricks on me, I know I saw someone come through here and this window didn't just open on his own. Anyway I guess I should take advantage and find out what's being kept in those safes."

Licking her lips, Catwoman sharpens her claws ready to take a more physical approach to this. Unknown to her someone steps from the left corner of the room coming from her back side tackling her to the ground ending up on top of her! Trying to fight the person off she's pinned down by her wrists, amused by the circumstance. At least she was correct when she had seen someone enter through the window. For a second there she had the feeling she might be going crazy.

"Who're you supposed to be; a cheap rip-off of the grim reaper?" Catwoman asks chuckling.

"I'm going to ask once and only once, and you better give me the truth! Why were you following me, are you some type of assassin?" He asks tightening his grip.

Catwoman now laughs finding his serious tone to be comical, catching her breath.

"I wouldn't hurt this cat if I were you; no not a very good idea. Batman wouldn't like that one bit."

Hearing what she says he gets up off her, standing off to her left helping Selina to her feet. Brushing herself off she's now a bit confused; that comment was merely a joke.

"Any idea where I can find the bat? There is someone I've tracked into this city who's very dangerous and is planning to bomb the convention center where the music awards will take place in two days. His name is Raoul Bushman. I've heard a lot of stories of this Batman; good and bad…any idea where I can find him?"

Catwoman shrugs her shoulders, not sure if she should confide in this guy or not, something just seems off about him. Any person who wears a cape and mask has problems, but this guy has somewhat of a hoody cape combination.

"What is your name?" She asks.

"Moon Knight, and you?"

"Catwoman; but I don't believe I've ever heard of you. If I had to guess I'd say you're a part of that mutant group with X something."

Moon Knight knows exactly who she refers to; that being the X-men to his knowledge have all been taken down just like the many other heroes worldwide. Pointing in the direction of the safe boxes, Moon Knight tells her not to move and that he's going to check what's inside of them all. Taking his time he's able to unlock and open them all but is blown away to see that they're all empty, coming to a conclusion someone beat him to the punch, or the information he picked up was false.

"Well I guess I came all the way to this part of town for nothing," Moon Knight stands walking toward the window passed Catwoman, "Are you sure you don't know where I can find the bat?"

"You need not worry about that," Selina crosses her arms grinning, "If you're here long enough…he will find you, that is a promise."

With a sigh, he jumps out of the window gliding into the darkness of the twilight. The city itself is stunning visually, but has fallen into the hands of corruption. Diving out of the window Catwoman uses her whip to connect with the building adjacent to this one. Running out over the tops of buildings there's no doubt in her mind that she'll score some kind of prize tonight.

New York

Standing in front of a glass window in his office, Klint Gersayer holds a glass of ice water in his right hand having a lot on his mind concerning the second meeting with Lex Luthor. Off to the side of his desk his personal phone rings; setting the ice water down he answers the call.

"Good I'm glad you got it done in a timely fashion, did anyone see you…where's her body?" He listens to the caller on the other line for a few moments, "Great job Mr. Kas…"

Klint ends the conversation hearing a knock at the door, telling the caller he'd give them a call back at a later time with another list of instructions.

To Be Continue